BJP downplays Varun Gandhi controversy, says no need for comments

By The Week Correspondent
| October 21, 2016

Even as Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi strongly denied allegations of leaking information to middleman Abhishek Verma, BJP said that there was no need for the party to comment on the issue.

The BJP leaders sought to downplay the issue, claiming that they would wait and watch how it pans out in the coming days. “It is up to him to clarify his role,” a party source said, adding that the same issue had been brought to the knowledge of the party leadership when he was made general secretary in 2013. As there was not much in the allegations, the BJP went ahead and made him a general secretary. He is not holding any post currently.

Party strategists also said that the issue many not have much resonance during the Uttar Pradesh elections.

BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, “He(Gandhi) has issued a clarification. There is no need for further comments.”

Varun Gandhi in his defence had said, “I am going to turn 37 now. I have never met him (Verma) since I entered public life in 2004. The only reason I even know of him is because his parents were members of the Parliament and a respected family. I knew them just like many other leaders knew them.”

Allegations were levelled against Varun by Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogender Yadav, saying that he had leaked defence secrets to middleman Verma and arms manufacturers after being “honey trapped.”